A healthcare administration degree can help you pursue a bright and enriching career, whether you’re a professional inside the industry or someone keen to break into it. Of course, it requires about four years or more of sweat, toil, anxiety, and money before you can start reaping the fruit of your labor.
Only after you have successfully waded through the mountains of coursework; endured the stress of preparing project reports; fought sleep on study nights; and braved the anguish of assessment days are you finally ready to don the coveted graduation gown and hat.
But what have you worked so hard for? A bright and enriching career for sure, but what exactly makes it so? Here are five factors that may make a career in healthcare administration the stuff dreams are made of, and why enrolling in a healthcare administration degree program could be a smart choice.
1. Job Security: Layoffs. Bankruptcies. Pay cuts. Reduced working hours. Decreased production. Diminishing demand. Whichever direction you turn, these are the words that cut like knife through your heart. Like it or not, such is the reality of the times we live in. Jobs are hard to come by and job security is a feeling that retired about the same time as our folks. Except for one bright spot that continues to shine through the dark clouds of economic recession: healthcare. The nature of the industry, which is among the largest employers in the country, makes it more or less resistant to financial ups and downs. Healthcare administration is one of the primary healthcare occupations and hence can offer stability and security at a time when almost every other industry seems to have been consumed by the recession.
2. Employment Opportunities: Healthcare administrators held 303,000 jobs in the year 2010, and the profession is likely to add 68,000 more jobs through 2020*. The growth in employment of healthcare administrators is projected to be much faster than average for all occupations, spurred by an increase in the number of baby boomers reaching retirement age and requiring professional medical services. Clearly, there’s no dearth of jobs for graduates of healthcare administration degree programs.
3. Paycheck: While puritans of academia will argue against the wisdom of treating college education as business investment, the current economic environment does not leave any room for being a romantic. The truth is that you spend a precious amount of money on getting a college degree and hence, are absolutely justified in expecting returns from it. The excellent ROI they offer is one of the biggest things going in favor of healthcare degrees. As for healthcare administrators, they can make up to $84,270 per year in this profession, depending on education, experience, and location**.
4. Management Roles: Healthcare administrators are also called health service managers. Needless to say, it is a responsible position that can provide you a taste of life as a manager/leader. You make important decisions, you drive change, you decide business strategy, you implement organization-wide policies, you bring in improvements and efficiency, you attract talent, you mentor, you guide, you influence, and you impact how things function in your facility.
Of course, specific roles depend on your qualification, specialty, and the size of the facility. In really large facilities, senior executive and management roles are typically reserved for graduates of Master’s in Health Care Administration programs or other business/healthcare degrees.
5. Social Contribution: Healthcare administrators are not involved in direct patient care. They may not even visit patients all that often. But they touch the patient’s life on several levels. First, by continually making efforts to improve the quality of the healthcare delivery system. Second, by developing and leading healthcare outreach programs. Third, by advocating policy changes to improve the state of healthcare in society. And finally, by taking care of the more mundane details of running a healthcare facility, so doctors, nurses, and other primary healthcare providers can concentrate on caring for their patients.